Cleveland Cavaliers: LeBron James’ New Hairline Will Help

By now, we’ve heard all of the jokes. Things like “Didn’t LeBron James’ hairline play the Invisible Woman in Fantastic Four?”, “LeBron doesn’t wear a headband, he wears a two-in-one headband!” and “I just bought a flat screen TV the size of LeBron’s forehead!” have run amok on social media sites ever since The King began to show the slightest, absolutely normal signs of aging.

But, as with everything, there was a point of realization for the general populous when James had his headband knocked off his head in Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals (otherwise known as the best basketball game ever) against the San Antonio Spurs. While having had a pretty average game prior to that moment, LeBron subsequently went berserk and singlehandedly pulled his team back to have a chance at stealing the game.

But back to the hairline. LeBron’s been in the league for 11 years and is about to play his 12th season. Obviously he’s going to show signs of aging, and for a dude that’s superhuman on the hardwood, this shouldn’t really be a big deal when analyzing him. So sue him for wanting to do something to make him look and feel younger. Everyone gets that urge at some point. But for some reason James has become the casual fans’ favourite punching bag, and they’ll take any shot at him they can, even when it doesn’t relate directly to basketball.

Or does it? That’s right, I’m going to side with ‘Bron here and back him up even further than usual. In fact, I’m going to suggest that his new hairline will help him in the coming 2013-14 season. Here are a few reasons why:

1. Higher Confidence

The main reason LeBron did this at all was to make himself feel better. And why’s that a bad thing? We all have little ticky-tack things about ourselves that we wish we could change. LeBron just actually went out and did it. Props to him for being bold enough to do so.

And now that he has, he’s got to be feeling good about himself. Especially with everyone on social media gawking at his new look and blabbering on about how he looks five years younger than he did a couple of months ago.

As we’ve come to witness, a happy LeBron is a ballin’ LeBron. That’s how the dude plays basketball: with joy. When he’s happy, he plays the game so much better and you can almost see him prancing on air as he dominates the court.

There’s no doubt we’ll be seeing that joyful King this season, which will be refreshing after watching a burned out one in 2013.

2. Opponents Will Think He’s Immortal

Seriously. As if they didn’t think he was secretly a T-1000 already.

He’s already the best player in the game and almost everyone recognizes it (I’m looking at you, Kevin Durant fanboys). Now he’s going to look like he’s freakin’ aging backwards! He’s the NBA’s Benjamin Button.

Not only will his new hairline plant this idea into players’ heads, but as we’ve seen from photos released earlier this offseason, James has also lost a fair amount of weight, making him appear lighter, quicker and, indeed, younger.

This should strike more fear into opponents’ hearts that his game didn’t already create and give James a psychological advantage. Every game he goes into, especially early on in the season, should give him an immediate morale boost as well when he sees the other team’s eyes open wide as he walks by.

I’m half-expecting Matthew McConaughey to show up court side to a Cleveland Cavaliers game and chuckle into his beer, “That’s what I love about these NBA players, man. I get older, they stay the same age.”

3. He’ll Command More Respect from Teammates

What is that old saying? Dress for success? Well that comes into play here.

LeBron has the resume, the game and the mindset. Now he has the looks. Again. Regardless of what some people might think, getting others to play for and with you isn’t an easy task. James has done a stellar job throughout his career of learning how to be a leader. Now he’ll look even more respectable while getting work done.

Unlike a certain other player in the past (Ahem, Carlos Boozer):

If you were his teammate, how could you not follow someone who always gets what they want? LeBron knows how to win at this point in his life. In multiple ways.

So there you have it. You may still hate on his new ‘do, but just remember this article when LeBron is at the free throw line and J.R. Smith is staring at his head, his mouth agape with Kevin Love’s shoelaces half undone.